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Outline: Antislavery/proslavery
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Framing questions
The colonization movement
Radical abolitionism
Backlash in the free states
The proslavery argument
Conclusion
Outline: Antislavery/proslavery
I.
Framing questions
I. Framing questions
1. How did antislavery and proslavery ideas form in
dialectical relation to each other?
2. How did ideas, values, and morals come to
impact the political process so deeply?
3. How did the slavery issue stress a system
designed to suppress sectional stressors?
 Given the party system’s mechanism to suppress
discussion of slavery
 Given the widespread racial prejudice in the “free”
states
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Outline: Antislavery/proslavery
I. Framing questions
II. The colonization movement
Robert K. Griffin, “The Liberian Senate” Watercolor and
graphite on paper, ca. 1856
The African Repository and Colonial Journal,
the main publication of the American
Colonization Society (ACS)
John Brown Russwurm
(Bowdoin ’26) co-founded
Freedom’s Journal in 1827
In 1829, Russwurm renounced his opposition to
colonization and became one of the movement’s
foremost black advocates. Russwurm moved to
Liberia, began a newspaper, and eventually rose to
become Governor of the Maryland Colony.
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Outline: Antislavery/proslavery
I. Framing questions
II. The colonization movement
III. Radical abolitionism
William Lloyd Garrison renounces colonization and
“gradual” measures to oppose slavery (1831):
“Assenting to the ‘self-evident truth’ maintained in
the American Declaration of Independence, ‘that all
men are created equal, and endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable rights -- among
which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’
I shall strenuously contend for the immediate
enfranchisement of our slave population. In Parkstreet Church, on the Fourth of July, 1829, in an
address on slavery, I unreflectingly assented to the
popular but pernicious doctrine of gradual
abolition. I seize this opportunity to make a full and
unequivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask
pardon of my God, of my country, and of my
brethren the poor slaves, for having uttered a
sentiment so full of timidity, injustice and
absurdity.”
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“I am aware, that many object to the severity of my
language; but is there not cause for severity? I will
be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as
justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or
speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a
man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate
alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from
the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to
gradually extricate her babe from the fire into
which it has fallen; -- but urge me not to use
moderation in a cause like the present. I am in
earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE
HEARD.”
Gerrit Smith
Wendell Phillips
Theodore D. Weld
Lydia Maria Child
Abolitionists meet in Cazenovia, New
York, c. 1845. Pictured are Gerrit Smith
and Frederick Douglass.
Abolitionists pioneered the use of new media made possible by
innovations in printing technology, such as steam presses.
Children’s serials such as The Slave’s Friend indoctrinated the next
generation.
Garrison’s Liberator served as the central media organ of the
movement in the northeast. The enterprise always stood on shaky
financial footings, but no other antislavery newspaper achieved its
significance and longevity.
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Liberty Party nominees for President (1840-1852)
James G. Birney
John P. Hale
Gerrit Smith
William Goodell
Birney
Birney
Hale (w)
G. Smith
Goodell
1840
1844
1848
1852
Van Buren
Hale
“That’s you Dad! More
”FREE SOIL.” We’ll rat
‘em out yet. Long life to
Davy Wilmot.”
Free Soil Party candidates Martin Van Buren and
Charles Francis Adams in the presidential race of
1848, under slogan "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free
Speech."
Martin
Van Buren
His son
(a politico)
In the 1848 election cycle, northern Democrats split. The “barnburners” opposed
the extension of slavery (among other things) and joined antislavery parties. The
“hunkers” stood by the Democratic Party and sought to bury the slavery issue..
Wilmot Proviso (1846)
“Provided, that, as an express
and fundamental condition to
the acquisition of any territory
from the Republic of Mexico by
the United States, by virtue of
any treaty which may be
negotiated between them, and
to the use by the executive of
the moneys herein
appropriated, neither slavery
nor involuntary servitude shall
ever exist in any part of said
territory, except for crime,
whereof the party shall first be
duly convicted.”
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Source: Scott R. Meinke, “Slavery, Partisanship, and Procedure in the U.S. House: The Gag Rule, 1836-1845,” Legislative Studies
Quarterly 32, no. 1 (February 2007): 33-57.
Senator John M. Niles, on defection of 14 NY Democrats on the TX
annexation vote:
“Do you think the N. York members have no sagacity, no instinct to
discover the public sentiment in their districts?” he asked. A “strong
infusion of the spirit of abolitionism” was making it harder and harder
for men such as Niles to hold their seats.
Outline: Antislavery/proslavery
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Framing questions
The colonization movement
Radical abolitionism
Backlash in the free states
Alexis de Tocqueville on northern prejudice:
“I see that in a certain portion of the territory
of the United States at the present day the
legal barrier which separated the two races is
falling away, but not that which exists in the
manners of the country, slavery recedes, but
the prejudice to which it has given birth is
immovable. Whoever has inhabited the
United States must have perceived that in
those parts of the Union in which the Negroes
are no longer slaves they have in no wise
drawn nearer to the whites. On the contrary,
the prejudice of race appears to be stronger
in the states that have abolished slavery than
in those where it still exists; and nowhere is it
so intolerant as in those states where
servitude has never been known.”
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Cesar:
"How you find
yourself dis hot
weeder Miss Chloe?"
Chloe:
"Pretty well I tank
you Mr. Cesar only I
aspire too much."
Blackface minstrelsy was the most popular entertainment craze of the nineteenth century,
and a uniquely American popular culture form.
The Jim Crow stereotype depicted enslaved
African Americans as childishly content and in
need of a master’s care
The Zip Coon stereotype illustrated the dangers
of freedom, but reassured viewers that racial
inferiority could always be detected
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What de debil you
hurrah for General
Jackson for? you
black nigger! I larn
you better. I’m a
ministration man!!”
“Hurrah! hurrah for
General Jackson!!”
“The Mercury”
“Democratic Press”
"How you like de new
fashion shirt, Miss
Florindas?"
"I tink dey might
elegum--I see you on
New Year day when
you carry de colour
in de Abolition
'society--you look
just like Pluto de
God of War!"
“If any out of order, and he no get
in agin, when you tell um, you hab
de authority of de shochietee
[society] for hit him rap on de
head. But you muss on no count
trike him on de shin, else you
make he nose bleed, and so stain
he ruffle shirt and he nice white
trowsaloon. But from de well
known lub of order and good
principle which hab always been
de character of de members of de
Shocietee, I tink you will hab no
need to exhort to such displeasant
method of dissumpline.”
Title: Bobalition of slavery
Date Created/Published: [Boston? : s.n.], 1832.
Medium: 1 print : woodcut with letterpress on laid paper
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"Bring up the
mortar you
white rascals."
"You bog-trotters,
come along with
them bricks."
"Sambo hurry up
the white
laborers."
"White man
hurry up them
bricks."
Broadside,
Philadelphia, 1835
A. Tappan
“Give him a coat
of Tar and
feathers."
“Down with the
incendiary
Abolitionists."
D. O’Connell
J.Q. Adams
“Help Children of
Africer – help
brothers. Oh. Oh.--"
“Lynch the
rascal."
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Notice posted in Cincinnati, c.
1836, following 1st mob attack on
abolitionist James G. Birney’s press.
Birney published The
Philanthropist, an abolitionist
newspaper. Another mob (led by
“respectable and wealthy
gentlemen”) rioted, destroying his
press and burning black homes.
Richmond Whig,
July 23, 1841
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Outline: Antislavery/proslavery
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Framing questions
The colonization movement
Radical abolitionism
Backlash in the free states
The proslavery argument
Thomas Jefferson on slavery:
“I tremble for my country when I reflect that
God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for
ever: that considering numbers, nature and
natural means only, a revolution of the wheel
of fortune, an exchange of situation is among
possible events: that it may become probable
by supernatural interference! The almighty
has no attribute which can take side with us in
such a contest.”
Thomas Jefferson on slavery:
"There is not a man on earth who would
sacrifice more than I would to relieve us from
this heavy reproach, in any practicable way.
The cession of that kind of property . . . is a
bagatelle which would not cost me a second
thought, if, in that way, a general
emancipation and expatriation could be
effected; and gradually, and with due
sacrifices, I think it might be. But as it is, we
have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither
hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in
one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”
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Forms of the “positive good” argument
1.
2.
3.
4.
Slavery is ordained in the Bible
Slavery civilizes and protects the slaves
Slavery is better than northern “wage slavery”
Slavery fosters liberty and equality among whites
1. Slavery is ordained in the Bible
“And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his
brethren.”
Genesis 9:25
Jesus to the questioners: “And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to
Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And
they marveled at him.”
Mark 12:17
Paul to the Corinthians: "If you were a slave when you were called [to God],
never mind. Even if you can gain for your freedom, make the most of your
present condition instead. For a slave how has been called to union with the
word is a freedman of the Lord, just as a freeman who has been called is a
slave of Christ."
Corinthians 7:21
2. Slavery civilizes and protects the slaves
“We would remind those who deprecate and
sympathize with negro slavery, that his slavery here
relieves him from a far more cruel, slavery in Africa,
or from idolatry and cannibalism, and every brutal
vice and crime that can disgrace humanity; and that it
christianizes, protects, supports and civilizes him. . . .
The negro is improvident; will not lay up in summer
for the wants of winter; will not accumulate in youth
for the exigencies of age. He would become an
insufferable burden to society. Society has the right to
prevent this, and can only do so by subjecting him to
domestic slavery.”
George Fitzhugh, Sociology for the South (1854)
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3. Slavery is better than northern “wage slavery”
“Our slaves are hired for life and well compensated; there
is no starvation, no begging, no want of employment
among our people, and not too much unemployment
either. Yours are hired by the day, not cared for, and
scantily compensated.”
SC Gov. James Henry Hammond to Congress (1858)
“The present condition of the laboring classes in Great
Britain differs from personal bondage chiefly in the name.
Necessity and hunger are more relentless masters than
the old Saxon lords…. As to food, clothing, residences,
and the amount and character of the labor required, the
working classes of Britain compare unfavorably with
many slaveholding countries.”
Thomas Cobb, An Historical Sketch of Slavery (1858)
4. Slavery fosters liberty and equality among whites
“Our slaves are black, of another and inferior race. . . .
Yours are white, of your own race; you are brothers of one
blood. They are your equals in natural endowment of
intellect, and they feel galled by their degradation. Our
slaves do not vote. We give them no political power. Yours
do vote, and, being the majority, they are the depositories
of all your political power.”
SC Gov. James Henry Hammond to Congress (1858)
“Your fathers and my father built this government on two
ideas: the first is that the white race is the citizen, and the
master race, and the white man is the equal of every other
white man. The second idea is that the Negro is the
inferior race.”
William L. Yancey speech in Boston (1860)
Outline: Antislavery/proslavery
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Framing questions
The colonization movement
Radical abolitionism
Backlash in the free states
The proslavery argument
Conclusion
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Framing questions
1. How did antislavery and proslavery ideas form in
dialectical relation to each other?
2. How did ideas, values, and morals come to
impact the political process so deeply?
3. How did the slavery issue stress a system
designed to suppress sectional stressors?
 Given the party system’s mechanism to suppress
discussion of slavery
 Given the widespread racial prejudice in the “free”
states
Questions to come
We have seen how slavery-related issues stressed
the two-party political system, despite forces acting
against this
 Polarizing national debate over slavery-related issues
 Emergence of third-party alternatives
1. How did a viable antislavery party emerge around
slavery-related issues?
2. How did the breakdown of the party system lead
to secession (and then war)?
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